Poppy & Posey fabric designed by Dodi Lee Poulsen for Riley Blake Designs
When I first got my hands on a fat quarter bundle of Poppy & Posey fabric, I wasn’t quite sure what to make with it. I had a modern hexagon design planned but when I saw the fabric in person, the design just didn’t feel right. The delicate motifs have a more traditional look to them than I usually gravitate to, but I was absolutely smitten with the swirly posies, dainty daisies, and beautiful butterflies.
I decided this fabric deserved a traditional block and in keeping with my “try something new with every quilt I make” mandate, so this was the perfect time to try log cabin blocks. However, I’m not much of a traditional quilter so I found a way to modernize the age-old block by paring down the basic concept. I made each block out of only 5 cuts of fabric and holy smokes did the piecing go fast. (Who knew that with fewer pieces of fabric, your piecing comes together quicker? LOL!)
Traditional Log Cabin blocks are made with 13 pieces or more. Often the middle piece was made with red fabric to indicate the hearth of the cabin.
Pared down log cabin block using only 5 pieces of fabric.
I built my log cabin blocks and then started to arrange them in columns. As I mentioned, the piecing went fairly quickly so I had my 6 columns together in no time. Then I made this cheeky time-lapse video of me hanging them up on my wall to illustrate how quickly the quilt top came together. 😉
This vintage dessert bowl that belonged to my mom holds my pins when I’m basting. Doesn’t it look perfectly paired with this fabric?
Scrunch, scrunch, scrunch, my quilt sandwich puts up with a lot of abuse as it makes its way through my sewing machine
Quilt gloves that match my fabric make me especially happy.
I quilted a 4″ grid in order to prep the quilt for the fancy curved walking foot quilting that I had in mind. I was tempted to stop here and call it done because it really does look simple and lovely. But nope, I am kicking my quilting skills up a notch and trying something new with this one… S‑curve quilting!
Next up I needed to mark the intervals for my S‑curves. Marking is not a fun part of the process, but it’s oh-so necessary for accurate results. I got out my Frixion pen, Hera marker, Ultimate Marking Pencil, and a variety of rulers to see what would work best. As it turned out, the Frixion pen worked best. Normally I don’t like to use anything other than a Hera marker but since I only needed to mark tiny dots to indicate where my curves will go, I decided to go with the ink.
Following the already quilted grid lines, I quilted these gentle S‑curves back and forth along the length of the quilt.
When I finished the first set of S‑curves, I turned the whole quilt 90 degrees and quilted the second set. You can see in the photos below how the second set makes the lines look like orange peel or flower petals.
I learned this quilting technique at a workshop I took with my quilty hero, Jacquie Gering. You can watch a video of Jacquie demonstrating her technique and beautiful quilting designs here. It was physically the most challenging quilting I’ve ever done because of the sheer amount of movement it took to move my quilt in the curved motion through my domestic sewing machine. But it was SO worth it though, I am beyond delighted with how it turned out.
I used 40wt. white Signature quilting thread and a regular 2.5 stitch length.
For my backing fabric I used Riley Blake Designs Le Creme Swiss Dot in Clover, which coordinates perfectly, and for my binding I used the Stripes in Sea Glass from the Poppy & Posey collection.
I’m excited to announce that the Dialogue Cabin quilt is now available for purchase.
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